CHANDIGARH: Swaraj India party on Tuesday released the first list of ten candidates, including three women, for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections.
Party founder Yogendra Yadav said Swaraj India will contest all 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
The party will also contest the Delhi assembly polls early next year, Yadav said in the presence of the party's Haryana unit president Rajiv Godara and nine of the ten candidates whose names were announced.
Yadav said the next lot of party candidates for Haryana, which goes to polls in October, will be announced after a fortnight.
He said the party will be giving one-third of the tickets to women while another one-third will go to the youth.
Yadav, who hails from Rewari in Haryana, said he will not contest the assembly polls, instead work for the success of his candidates.
"The idea behind forming the party and contesting the election is to give honest and good political representatives (an opportunity). Who do not run after money, but are honest and committed workers," he said.
Yadav was candid about his party's chances of winning the election.
"We do not want to make tall claims of winning, but want to give a strong and good opposition, where we find there is a vacuum in the state today," he said.
He further asserted his party will not enter into an alliance with any party.
He maintained Swaraj India was here to tread its own path and present a credible opposition.
He said all ten candidates come from "simple and ordinary families" and are committed to public welfare.
He said Swaraj India is the only party in the country to appoint a Lokpal for the careful selection of candidates.
"If any complaint is received against our candidate regarding corruption, character, criminality, communalism, it will not be probed by our party or screening committee, but by the Lokpal, who will not be a member of our party.
"We will ourselves appeal the people not to vote for our candidate even if a complaint comes barely 24 hours before the polls and if the Lokpal finds any truth in it," he said.
He said Joginder Singh Toor, a noted advocate of Punjab and Haryana High Court, will be their Lokpal.
Replying to a question, Yadav said eight of the ten candidates named Tuesday have Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) backgrounds, a party which Yadav too was a part of earlier.
"We have said that we will welcome good people who are still associated with the AAP to join us, but we are not going to force anyone. We have also said that we do not need 'kuchra' (dirt) from that party," he said.
"We are not going into the business of a number of seats. We do not have the money to win the election, but we have the character and courage needed to fight the polls. And rest is upto the people," he said, when asked on how many seats the party was expecting to win.
Yadav claimed the law and order situation in Haryana has worsened under BJP rule.
He said distressed farmers were waiting for justice and hike in minimum support price.
"The youth are jobless and Haryana is among those states where unemployment rate is quite high," he said.
Among the party candidates, Shailja Bhatia is a businesswoman who will be the party candidate from Gurugram.
Manju Bala is the zila parishad chief in Rewari, where she will be contesting from.
Other candidates are Deepak from Pataudi (Gurugram), Dharam Pal from Kosli (Rewari), Yudhvir Singh Ahlawat from Tosham in Bhiwani, Rajendra Yadav from Bhiwani, Sanjiv Godara from Dadri in Charkhi Dadri, Virender Singh Bageria from Nalwa in Hisar, Chaman Lal from Sadhaura in Yamunanagar and Promila Saharan from Kalayat in Kaithal.